Oldham 60, Leznignan 30: Oldham win cracking cup clash

Photo: Chris Sunderland

CHRIS BAINES sprints away from the Lezignan defence. Picture by CHRIS SUNDERLAND.

SACRE BLEU. Those were the first words to emerge from the mouth of Roughyeds coach Tony Benson after his side made it through to the last 16 of the Carnegie Challenge Cup, eliminating the French domestic champions in the process after a barnstorming contest.

No wonder. This was a game that had everything – even a pre-match Village People tribute act to welcome the players onto the field – and it was only the Roughyeds’ extra je ne sais quoi that ultimately saw them past seriously skilled, if defensively brittle, opposition.

Oldham had started the game apace before coming under a sudden barrage from the visitors, who showed great invention and speed in manoeuvring the ball.

A 34-6 lead was whittled down to a mere 10 points in the space of eight minutes as the first half drew to a close.

It was a remarkable effort from the ‘Wild Boars’, whose heads could easily have dropped following their poor start.

Instead, player-coach James Wynne was the happier man entering the changing rooms at half-time, especially as Oldham full-back Paul O’Connor was sent to the sin-bin near the end of the opening period for holding down the marauding Jared Taylor as the visitors poured forward.

Thankfully for the home fans, the ship was steadied to the extent that the French side were restricted to only one further try on the resumption of play, Wynne getting it himself as reward for an enterprising display.

Oldham struck plenty of positive notes on an afternoon of free-flowing rugby. Andy Ballard’s remarkable run continued, adding 28 points through two tries and 10 goals a week after equalling the club’s all-time record of 30 in a game against Workington.

Lucas Onyango, in on the wing for Lee Greenwood, ran in a hat-trick and his confidence will be boosted considerably by the last of his treble, running half the length of the field before rounding the full-back. It was the Lucas of old.

Yet nobody eclipsed the efforts of scrum-half Thomas Coyle. The diminutive number seven frightened Lezignan to death with a series of superbly timed passes and defence splitting runs and was right at the heart of the scoring spree at the start which effectively won the game for the home side.

The younger Coyle’s perfectly-timed pass to the onrushing Chris Baines helped create the opening try for Onyango and it took only a further three minutes for brother James Coyle to create another for Marcus St Hilaire – just after Taylor had been shown a yellow card for keeping hold of Ballard for too long after the winger had made a break.

Onyango got on the end of another James Coyle ball on 13 minutes and when Thomas’s show-and-go had made another for St Hilaire two minutes later, the assembled Oldham support could have been forgiven for wisecracking about another French surrender.

It didn’t happen. Though Phillipe Laurent’s try was followed by a powerful surge downfield from Ballard which led to the winger’s first, plus a Thomas Coyle try which came on the back of an interception, Lezignan started to threaten.

Former NRL prop Chris Beattie piled over from close range and next in was Frank Rovira. Then, good hands deep in their own territory released full-back Jared Tylor to embark on a superb surge down the right touchline.

He was eventually caught by O’Connor, who held on too long and was suitably punished, and Lezignan made use of the extra numbers via a wonderful pass from Aurelien Cologni to Rovira. A fourth conversion from Nicolas Munoz on the hooter and the tie was well balanced at 34-24.

Ballard’s early penalty settled a few nerves and Onyango’s individual effort then created much needed breathing space for Oldham.

Phil Joseph was next over, before Wynne made up for bombing a try minutes earlier with a poor pass by crossing himself from close range.

The game was up by then, though. Richard Mervill got on the end of a Paul Reilly break to touch down under the posts with 11 minutes to go, before a truly surreal moment occurred.

Andy Ballard almost stopped, as did everyone else, after casually taking on the ball following a Dave Allen offload which had appeared to travel well forward – if only after hitting the floor. The winger then lit a cigar, flicked the ball over the defender with his boot and, as if in slow motion, touched it down. The try stood. It was that kind of day.


BENSON BLAST DOES THE TRICK

ROUGHYEDS coach Tony Benson admitted to issuing a few stern words to his players as Lezignan threatened an amazing comeback.

At 34-6 up and carving holes almost at will in the visitors’ defensive line, a bumper Challenge Cup scoreline looked to be on the cards for Oldham over the French champions.

The visitors, though, had other ideas and produced a startling recovery, powered by some strong running from a seriously large pack and superb quick hands along the back line.

Just before the break, Roughyeds full-back Paul O’Connor was sent to the sin-bin and with Lezignan scoring 18 unanswered points to pull the game back to 34-24, the momentum was with the French side.

A far more solid second half from Oldham then took the heat out of the situation and saw them make it through to the fifth round of the Carnegie Challenge Cup, but Benson agreed that his players switched off for a period to lose control of proceedings.

“At half-time we were pretty harsh with each other and responded well in the second half,” Benson said.

“Lezignan’s tails were up at half-time and they are a very good side, as you saw. I told the players that - and also that we must be pretty good ourselves to do what we did to them to get the start we did. It was important to get back to that.

“We swapped the full-back three times in the changing rooms before we came out and ended up with Junior (Marcus St Hilaire) which worked pretty well.

“Then, once Paul O’Connor got back on we took control again.”

In all, Oldham scored 10 tries to Lezignan’s five, with winger Andy Ballard contributing 28 points to add to his 30 of last week.

Amid all the excitement, Benson was keen to point out just how much the all-action game had cost his men physically.

“It was an entertaining game and cup games are like that,” added Benson. “You have to throw everything at it. Both teams did and it made for a very good spectacle.

“Sometimes things don’t look quite as pretty and clinical as they should, but that is what makes Challenge Cup games special.”